RIFLE RANGE BOY

To the ignoramus, this YouTube clip would be a joke. Laced with a thick South Indian accent, impregnated with assertive gestures and complete with protruding eye movements for special effects, it has been making its rounds in many social media outlets many times over for hearty laughs and cynical smiles. Added on with the fact that this holy man was once caught on a CCTV to be in close proximity with a disciple, this flick becomes more enticing. Because of his unholy conduct, in a single brush, all his seemingly profound sermons have come to nought. If one were to listen to heart what Swami Nityananda is saying, depending on one’s understanding of life, its origin and purpose, it could not be denied that his speech carries a deeper meaning. He is talking about the Atma (soul) that is within all of us that is part of the Brahman as mentioned in the Vedic scriptures. The souls of all beings are linked in a different realm. To quote a line from Beatles’ song ‘I am the Walrus’, ‘I ...

The Fountain (2006) Story, Screenplay, Direction: Darren Aronofsky  It seems that there were two trees in the Garden of Eden. When Adam and Eve disobeyed God and decided to savour the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge (of Good and Evil), God cast them to Earth and hid the other tree, the Tree of Life. From time immemorial, people have been going to great lengths to locate this 'Tree of Life'. They are under the impression that it could give Man immortality. This story is just about that and the conclusion that the characters draw quite humbling. It spans three lifetimes all trying to find the 'tree of life' with the hope of attaining immortality! All three lifelines are portrayed interspersed with each other but it all falls into place at the end. In the first one, Tomas (Hugh Jackman) is a Spanish conquistador in search of the tree in South America for Queen Isabella (Rachel Weisz), so that they can live happily together forever. In the second caption, Jackman is...

Some say that the mere fact that we are born on Earth is torture. It is a punishment of sorts. All the aches, the physical pains, the emotional pains, the disappointments, the cheats, the fall and loss of function may be just an ellipse of what a man faces in his lifetime. Saying all these, even the wisest of men, would like to hold on to his last breath not matter what in exchange for all the wealth in the world. Many religions that promote themselves as a way of life suggest that the relationships that we develop along the way in our life are the cause of most of our problems. We should either not to take to heart all the miseries that develop in our daily interactions with our friends, colleagues, and loved ones or cut ourselves from these relationships. In the other words, renunciation is the word.  Renunciation can be done, it seems, in two ways. In the first instance, one can choose a life of self-sacrifice and self-avoidance from the time of adolescence or at com...

I remember one of my classmates, KT, asking a teacher when we were in Form 2. It was a Malay language class. And the guy had a coarse way of demanding an answer to his question. He asked,  “Why are the people so stupid? Why do people say, ‘ jatuh hati ’ when you fall in love, ‘ patah hati’ when you are heart-broken or falling out of love?” trying to sound like a smart alec. “We think with our brain, not liver!” ( Hati  is liver in the Malay language) Sounds like a simple question but believe me, it is not. Greek philosophers have been arguing that the soul a person is in the heart or the mind. It was Galen who first proposed the tripartite division of souls; the rational one in the brain, the spiritual one in the heart and appetitive one in the liver. As love and lust are forms of desire just as appetite satisfies the culinary desires of an individual, they must have bundled to arise from the liver. So, the message is, do not listen to heart, do not rational...